View full sizeJOE HERMITT, The Patriot-NewsNorma Kenley-Barber says Philip Abromats, the deputy secretary for the department's Office of Income Maintenance, verbally abused her when she parked in his reserved spot.

Philip Abromats, the deputy secretary for the department's Office of Income Maintenance, is being moved this week to a newly created position of executive director of program audits and regulatory review, according to department spokesman Michael Race.

The new position is being created as part of a comprehensive plan to identify efficiencies within the department, Race said. It is not immediately clear whether the new assignment will alter the $125,184 salary he has been earning since taking the deputy secretary post in April. Race declined requests to speak to Abromats or Welfare Secretary Gary Alexander about this job change.

Taking over his deputy secretary post in an acting capacity is Lourdes Padilla, who has worked for the department for over two decades. She started as a caseworker in a county assistance officer and worked her way up through Office of Income Maintenance. Her new salary also has yet to be determined, Race said.

Race declined to say whether the parking space dispute that Abromats had last month with Rev. Norma Kenley-Barber had anything to do with the reassignment. Race said the department does not comment on the reasons for its personnel decisions.

In that parking incident, Kenley-Barber, who takes diuretics for her heart condition, parked her car in Abromats' reserved space right outside the front doors of the building in the Capitol complex for only five minutes while she ran inside to use the restroom.

When she returned, Abromats had arrived and parked his state-provided car in a way to block her car from leaving while he went inside to call police. When he returned to his car, Kenley-Barber said he berated her, called her names and insulted her character as a crowd of onlookers watched.

“A person with such a negative behavior and attitude should not be in a leadership position,” Kenley-Barber stated in a letter of complaint she sent to department officials.

Following that incident Abromats had his state car and prime parking spot taken away. Race said Abromats' new position does not provide him with a state car.

Kenley-Barber wasn't the only one to complain to the welfare secretary about Abromats in recent months.

Yvette Long, of the Philadelphia Welfare Rights organization and co-chair of the welfare department’s Income Maintenance Advisory Committee, said she told Alexander that Abromats had not been to a single meeting of her committee despite a departmental requirement that he attend those sessions. The advisory committee serves as the department's ears and eyes in the welfare community and shares observations with top-level department officials to inform their policy decisions.

Additionally, Sen. Vincent Hughes, D-Philadelphia, questioned Alexander at a Senate hearing in May about his selection of Abromats who Hughes said seemed to lack experience in working in a welfare department handling the duties that he was assigned. Alexander responded, "I am looking for people who are independent thinkers, who are not entrenched in the system and who can think outside of the box. That appointment was appropriate and very qualified in terms of his ability to evaluate and learn very quickly."

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